


so please hurry, leave me, i can't breathe

by laddiebants



Category: Ghosts (TV 2019)
Genre: both of whom only show up for like 5 lines, i wrote this on a plane so go easy on me, it's not super graphic dw, major character death bc kitty dies of whooping cough, the OFC tag is for kitty's mum n sis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-02
Updated: 2019-06-02
Packaged: 2020-04-06 13:34:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19063729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laddiebants/pseuds/laddiebants
Summary: In which a child is lost by one family, and gained by another





	so please hurry, leave me, i can't breathe

**Author's Note:**

> or, as i like to call it, kitty dies of whooping cough

Kitty has been in bed for almost a week now. Her mother comes and goes, and her nurse is there for more time than she isn’t there.

Kitty herself feels hot. She’s said this, and asked for her blanket to be taken away. It hasn’t been. She would move it herself, but her arms feel too heavy and numb for her to properly use them.

“Mama,” she asked on the third day. “Am I going to die?”

Her mother’s features had softened, draped over her face like silk curtains, and she looked sad. She turned and walked out, leaving Kitty there. The question hadn’t been answered, but in the worst way, it had.

-

She coughs and coughs, hacks up her lungs, heaves and shakes and cries. Her body shudders back and forth. Kitty wants to sleep. She wants it so badly. She’d give anything, she thinks, to rest, just for an hour or two. For it to be over.

-

In the second week, her older sister comes in. She’s come back from the city. Normally, Kitty would be elated - her sister always brings back such wonderful tales of ballrooms and handsome princes and treasures beyond Kitty’s wildest imagination. Her sister visiting is always such a happy time for Kitty.

Her sister looks as if she’s been crying.

She walks over silently and sits on the edge of the bed.

“Oh Kitty,” she whispers. “The world is being so, so cruel to you. I can’t-” here she breaks off and swallows a sob- “I can’t bear to watch.”

Kitty opens her mouth to reply, but she can’t think of the right words to say. This normally comes naturally to her, and her brow furrows. Her sister places a hand over her mouth, fingers cooling her hot face. “Rest now.”

She leans in and presses a kiss to Kitty’s forehead. The door shuts gently after her when she leaves. Kitty feels soft and heavy. Her eyes shut and she drifts off.

-

She wakes up hours later. The air is dark and cool. The house seems entirely still. Kitty feels - 

For the first time in weeks, Kitty feels better. No, not just better - she feels completely fine. Wonderful, even.

She slides out of bed, intending to tell her mother. The door is wide open now. Kitty runs through it and sprints down the hall and around the corner and up the stairs, shouting all the while what she’s recovered, that everything’s alright, and - 

Her mother isn’t there. 

She’s not in here room. The door is open, and Kitty can see that the room is empty. Stripped bare. A thin layer of dust has settled over everything.

“Mama?” Kitty goes into the next room. It’s the same picture. And in the room next to that, and the room next to that one. She looks all along the corridor. Every room is exactly the same.

Cruelly, painfully empty.

“They left.”

Kitty spins round and screams.

“Monster!”

The speaker is a hunched over, hairy _thing_ , covered in fur and dirt. It moves towards her, arms outstretched. Kitty shrieks and turns to run.

She collides with a man and falls down. She lands on something hard and immediately scrambles up to come face to face with a neck. Just a neck. That’s - that’s where the man stops.

“Excuse me,” says the head at her feet. Kitty screams again and hurls herself down the stairs.

At the bottom, a woman snatches her up in her arms and holds Kitty tight. “Get back, both a yous!” she yells to the approaching bodies. “Yous are scarins her!”

Kitty struggles against the arms holding her. “Let me go! Where’s my mother?”

“They left,” repeats the thing with the fur. “Long time.”

“No! Liar! Why would they leave me?”

The woman lets go a little and holds her at arm’s length. “You left them.”

“What?” Kitty stops wriggling in the woman’s grasp and shakes her head. No.

“You died. Long time ago.”

The silence, the dust, the empty house and headless man - “I’m dead?”

They all look down, or away. Not at her.

“So, heaven was a lie?” Kitty feels like she’s about to start crying.

The woman pulls her back in, gently this time. Her hand rubs small circles on Kitty’s back. “This is it for us.”

“I’m sorry,” says the head.

“It’s okay.” Kitty’s voice is small and fragile. “I’ll be alright.”

**Author's Note:**

> HNG ao3 deleted my original end notes can i get an f
> 
> if you liked this, feel free to give it kudos/leave a comment! if you didn't like it, don't do those things i guess? if you want to request a fic or just chat in general, you can message me on tumblr @damienhirstsdiamondskull
> 
> there's like, a very good chance that i'll end up doing something about kitty's sister at some point, because i love her
> 
> the title is from First Love/Late Spring by Mitski 
> 
> kitty deserves the world
> 
> well, i guess that's all folks


End file.
